A Birthday Party

We ended our visit in Seattle with a celebration of Julia's birthday.  My cousin Elyssee, her husband Buck, her daughter Emma (who just graduated from Pamona College) were there.  In addition, Julia's buddy Sophie (they share a nanny) and her parents Dave and Iva attended.


Julia celebrated with a birthday cupcake from Trophy Cupcakes.

A Ferry Ride to Bainbridge Island

Seattle lies in the middle of the Puget Sound and is served by ferries that allow a visitor to explore the islands of the Sound.  Today we explored Bainbridge Island.

About four times the size of Jamestown, RI.

It is a short ferry ride from Downtown Seattle.

We all had a grand time on the ferry and on the island.  One of the most impressive sights appears while returning to Seattle…

Tomorrow is our last day on Seattle.  We will celebrate Julia’s first birthday and then fly home to Jamestown.

In Seattle

We arrived to many welcomes in Seattle – from all -- especially Julia
A few statistics for those of you who are interested (with apologies to Harper’s)

• Number of miles traveled in rented Toyota Yaris: 5134
• National Parks Service sites visited: 7 - Jefferson Arch (St. Louis), Tallgrass Prairie Preserve (Strong City, KS), Bandelier National Monument (Los Alamos, NM), Grand Canyon, Sequoia National Park, Yosemite, Crater Lake
• Clothes washed in: Visalia, CA; San Jose, CA; and Seattle, WA
• Roadfood suggestions eaten in and enjoyed: 6 - Henry’s, Goody- Goody Diner, Kumback Lunch, Dyer’s Bar-B-Que, Cafe Pasqual, and Otto’s Sausage Kitchen
• States driven across: 17 - RI, CT, NJ, PA, OH, IN, IL, MO, KS, OK, TX, NM, AZ, NM, CA, OR, WA

Almost there…

We left Crater Lake early this morning and drove thru fog and snow – the most beautiful scenery we’ve seen so far.

We headed for Portland and Powell’s Bookstore…how could we miss it?  Ralph picked up a book on search theory … “Searching for Shondra”… for a long time they looked in all the wrong places.  I bought some easy reading fiction.  As a last stop before we get to Seattle, we decided to make one more Jane and Michael Roadfood stop…at Otto’s Sausage Kitchen.  We had a few grilled on the sidewalk.

It’s now on to Seattle and daughter, and son-in-law and granddaughter Julia.

By the way for you who are paying attention…I’m updating this on the road and the Google map on top of the blog is not updating correctly…I hope to get it fixed this evening…pictures of family will follow

Crater Lake

We finish our National Park portion of this cross country tour by spending two nights and one spectacular day at Crater Lake National Park in south central Oregon.

Crater Lake was formed 7900 years ago by a volcano erupting and leaving a crater or caldera (“bathtub” our park ranger Sue told us) which is filled with snow and rainwater.  The sights invite panoramic photos, so here are a few…

  The park gets 44 feet of snow annually and currently in the last week of June, there are 41 inches of snow on the ground.

We say goodbye to Crater Lake and the rest of the National Parks and Lodges that we have visited during this trip Monday morning and travel on.  First a short stop in Portland Oregon to visit Powell's Books and stop at a Roadfood choice of which there are several.

Next we spend a short week with daughter, son-in-law and granddaughter Abby, David and Julia in Seattle.

Monterey Aquarium

After sighting the Pacific, we visited Monterey, CA and the Monterey Bay Aquarium

The Pacific

The ocean was sighted by Europeans early in the 16th century, first by the Spanish explorer Vasco Núñez de Balboa who crossed the Isthmus of Panama in 1513 and named it as Mar del Sur (South Sea), and then by the Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan, who sailed the Pacific during his circumnavigation from 1519 to 1522. 

In June of 2010 the ocean was sighted by the American traveler Ralph Klingbeil who crossed from the island of Cannonicut in the Narragansett Bay north of the Atlantic Ocean.  Mr. Klingbeil had traveled some 3700 miles in a rented Toyota Yarus.